{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"No More Heroes? - Patch Hammond","description":"Patch Hammond has remained a bit of an enigma in the climbing world. If you flick through the magazines from the late 1990s you\u2019ll see a scruffy youth with an impressive climbing CV \u2013 onsighting E6 and E7 in North Wales and climbing with the likes of Tim Emmett, Neil Gresham and Leo Houlding. In the last episode we heard from Leo about their ascent of El Ni\u00f1o on El Capitan \u2013 Leo\u2019s first big wall. Patch and Leo had travelled to Yosemite together, but while Leo was socialising at Camp Four and becoming part of the Yosemite scene it was Patch who was heading off trying to get better at the style of climbing there. Patch met Ben Bransby for the first time in the valley. Encouraged by the Huber brothers the two of them set out to repeat Free Rider \u2013 the same route featured in Free Solo with Alex Honnold. They set off from the base of the wall to attempt it ground up, with no experience and borrowed gear and made an impressive effort. They didn\u2019t quite manage to free climb the route, but put in what was at the time the most impressive British attempt on El Capitan. Under the wing of the Hubers, Patch talked Leo into attempting El Ni\u00f1o, telling him that he\u2019d already done a 5.13a pitch and was convinced Leo would stand a chance of onsighting 5.13b. Plus the route would suit them \u2013 no crack climbing on this one, slabs and adventure climbing exactly like they\u2019d been training on in the slate quarries and at Gogarth. Patch\u2019s memories of those years climbing revolve around the community he became a part of, and the mentors who guided him. He still seems in awe of the fact that he could be a part of this scene where everyone was a hero to him. He didn\u2019t seem to realise that maybe he was one of them too. Factor Two is brought to you by Wil Treasure and UKClimbing.com Music credits: Plantation Audionautix.com Stiller Tag Philip Weigl Aftermath Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com) Solo Acoustic Blues Audionautix.com Autumn Sunset Audionautix.com Subdivision of the Masses Philip Weigl Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/ ","author_name":"Factor Two","author_url":"https:\/\/www.factortwo.co.uk","html":"